Most VPN Review Sites Are Owned by the Industry They Review
We're not. Here's who we are, what we believe, and how we make money — without compromising the one thing that makes us worth reading.
The Dirty Secret of VPN Review Sites
In 2021, Kape Technologies — a company with a history of distributing adware — acquired ExpressVPN for $936 million. Kape already owned CyberGhost and Private Internet Access. What most people don't know is that Kape also owns several of the biggest VPN review sites on the internet, including vpnMentor and Wizcase.
Think about that for a moment. The same company that owns ExpressVPN also owns the sites that review it. Those sites consistently rank ExpressVPN near the top of their "independent" recommendations.
This isn't a conspiracy theory. It's a documented business structure. The affiliate marketing industry has a conflict of interest problem, and nowhere is it worse than VPN reviews.
The exception is Privacy Guides — a genuinely independent, non-commercial resource that takes no affiliate revenue. We respect their work enormously. But their model means they can't sustain the kind of publishing volume needed to cover every VPN, every comparison, every use case.
There's a gap between "owned by the industry" and "takes no money at all." That's the gap we're trying to fill.
Who We Are
NoSpyOnVPN is part of the NoSpy Network — a family of privacy-focused sites covering email, cloud storage, password managers, VPNs, and private AI. The network is built and run by Farsight Digital Technologies, an independent Australian company with no investors, no venture capital, and no ties to any VPN provider.
We're not security researchers or cryptographers. We're privacy advocates who got tired of wading through compromised reviews to find honest information. So we built the resource we wished existed.
The NoSpy Network covers the full privacy stack — because a VPN alone isn't enough. Your email, your files, your passwords, and your AI conversations all need protection. We cover all of it, with the same standards applied consistently across every product we review.
How We Make Money — Disclosed, Not Hidden
We participate in affiliate programs. When you click a link on this site and sign up for a paid plan, we earn a commission. This is how the site is funded.
We're telling you this plainly, at the top of an entire page dedicated to it — not buried in an asterisk at the bottom of a comparison table.
Our current affiliate partners are Proton (Proton VPN, Proton Mail, Proton Drive, Proton Pass) and NordVPN. Both were chosen because they meet our privacy criteria — independent audits, verified no-logs policies, and jurisdictions with genuine legal protections.
We do not have affiliate relationships with ExpressVPN, Surfshark, IPVanish, or any other provider we've written critically about. If that changes, we'll say so.
How We Evaluate a VPN
Every VPN we review is assessed against the same six criteria. A VPN that fails on one can still be recommended — but we'll tell you the tradeoff clearly.
Independent Audit
Has the provider submitted to a genuine third-party security audit — not just a marketing exercise? Who conducted it, and when was it last updated?
Open Source Code
Can anyone inspect the apps to verify the no-logs claim? Closed source means you're trusting their word. Open source means you can verify.
Jurisdiction
Where is the provider legally incorporated? Switzerland and Panama offer strong protections. The US, UK, and Netherlands are surveillance-alliance jurisdictions.
Legal Structure
Does the provider have a legal structure that makes logging technically and legally impossible — or just one that promises not to?
Track Record
Has the provider ever handed over user data — voluntarily or under legal compulsion? Past behaviour under pressure is the most reliable signal.
Transparency Reports
Does the provider publish regular transparency reports showing exactly what data they were able to provide to authorities? The ideal answer: none, because there's nothing to provide.
"Privacy is not a nice to have. It's a right worth fighting for."
We believe the internet gave us freedom — but it was never designed to give us privacy. That gap is yours to close. We're here to help you close it.
Read our full philosophy →Start With the VPNs We Actually Trust
Both providers meet our full criteria — independent audits, verified no-logs, and the right legal structure. Pick the one that fits your needs.